HeloDude

As I understand it, those are purchases for the U.S. Army. On second thought...does the Air Force even have helicopters??

Ok, I'm a knuckle dragger, so bear with me: What is this 'non-USO military lounge' at MSP you speak of? I'm aware of the USO outside the main terminal by the baggage claim/car rentals that I thought was pretty nice if you have a layover--comfy recliners, free wireless, etc (too bad no alcohol). Only thing that sucks is you have to go through security again. But is there another lounge for us military types inside the main terminal? If so, more details please!

I hear you man on the having to be away from your kids, that's got to be rough. But from what you're saying, that would make it suck no matter where they would send you for a year if your family couldn't come along. The Died is paradise compared to where some others (myself included) are doing their 365's--and we're not in the Army either. I'd count your blessings you didn't get sent to Iraq or Afghanistan for a 365. In Qatar you can drink 3 beers a day, you'll get a hardened billet, nice BX, much nicer base, and you can actually go out into to Doha--all while still getting your tax free and combat pay. Doesn't sound too bad at all considering. But seriously man, best of luck to you and I hope your year goes by quickly. 1 year is a long time to be away. Stay safe.

I don't know--that one blonde chick in the AFN commercial who says something like 'I'll give you the next night off so you can have some privacy' in reference to the two being roommates--she's pretty hot. If I were her roomate she'd be home with me every night. Oh, and that Marine Sergeant (E-5) doing to the news--she's kind of hot in her own way too. Oh, and before I get framed 'that guy' for thinking AFN chicks are hot--I'm almost done with my 365 tour in Iraq--here, everything is either a 1 or a 0 (especially at an army base), and the the closer you are to finishing your year, most of them start becoming 1's.

I think they should look into purchasing the Mi-17 as the new CSAR-X...I kid I kid. But seriously, a Ukranian civilian Mi-17 ground school instructor spent 1 hour explaining to us why the Mi-17 would be a better purchase for the U.S. vs the S-92 and US-101. His main reasoning was that it's a proven helicopter with a lot of power and that it's wayyy cheaper than the others--but in reality, I think he was secretly working for Kazan...or maybe the KGB.

Perhaps it is time to allow the South Koreans to provide for their own defense as well? Or is the only argument with South Korea is that we use their strategic location at a base for future operations, vs for protecting the sovereignty of the state of South Korea? I'm sure we could base an attack again North Korea and other nations nearby from Japan. My reason for mentioning South Korea is that we have direct interests in seeing Iraq succeed as a democratic state. We also have interests in that area outside of Iraq. If we leave before they are completely ready I think we will have other issues in that region to deal with in the near future. Ahh China--I love how this argument is always brought up on this forum, especially when it comes to the discussion of the GWOT and how it pertains to Iraq and Afghanistan. Dealing with China is not the same as dealing with countries in the Middle East--this from a diplomatic point of view as well as a military one. Does anyone actually believe that the U.S. would have to deal unilaterally with China without the help of the U.N., NATO, etc? My opinion is that the U.S. has to deal with both situations--but more so with the current fight. Right now it can be argued that more soldiers are dying due to the lack of UAV's vs the lack of F-22's. Of course the U.S. has to use forward thinking, however, I think it's a mistake for the new (or future) administration to discount the current situation in the Middle East. It all comes down to the question: Does the U.S. have strategic interests in seeing Iraq succeed as a democracy? All just an opinion from someone who hasn't been to all those fancy PME's yet. Thank you very much. I'm no better or different than all the other guys on here and all those others who wear a uniform (past and present). I'd actually argue over a beer that I don't do that much compared to many others who are actually doing the no-kidding fighting.

Have you ever directly worked with the Iraqi military or is this just your own personal viewpoint? I work directly with the Iraqi Air Force almost everyday and have a different opinion on the matter. If you read the recent articles (past few months) on af.mil about the Iraqi Air Force you'll hear (on both sides--Iraq and the U.S.) that the Iraqi Air Force is far behind their Iraqi Army counterparts and are not ready to take over the job in defending their borders via airpower. Still think we should turn them over the keys?

Oh, and just to add, I'm at Sather right now trying to get to Qatar on my last 4-day and when I stopped at the BX it said outside 'Closed from 2330 to 2430' for shift change or something. You know, I always said I wish there was more time in a day to get my sh!t done, now it looks like they've given us an extra 30 minutes!

Or you could just round your times a little bit more (also to avoid the 0000 confusion lol) to give yourself an extra .1 hr of flight time--or am I the only one who does this? I did hear an Army E-5 at Ali Asalem tell us about a role call at 2430--I just looked over at my buddy and he shook his head and said 'Yep, it's the Army'

And you believe them! That's like when chicks tell their fat chick friends that they don't look fat! I say keep growing it for sure, but I would never believe a buddy when he tells me that my stache is a 'solid look'. So you're going to get your Iraqis to all shave their mustache on Feb 28th so they can truly be part of the Mustache March competition? Good luck! Other than one or two of our younger pilots, I've never seen my Iraqi pilots without a stache! Q: Do you know who Maj Mohamed is? A: Yeah, he's that Iraqi pilot with the dark hair and a mustache right? Oh, and he wears those random patches on his flight suit?--yeah, I know him. LOL

As with Hueypilot, I'm also doing the CAFTT experience--just on the rotorwing side of things. If you're a fixed-wing guy, I'd say volunteer to fly the King Air's. They look like pretty sweet birds and when I was down at Sather talking to a fellow advisor he said that they're brand new aircraft and he logs a sh!t ton of hours--and whenever you fly with an Iraqi, it's always IP time. Kind of cool for us flying rotorwing with the Iraqis--often I log IP time, combat time, and NVG time all from the same flight. The reason I say go for King Air's vs the 172's is that you'll have a lot more fun time training and flying with the old heads/Iraqi pilots than the brand new ones who already speak good English getting trained on the 172's (that's too easy lol). Plus, you'll fly a better aircraft, log more time, and get to see more of the country. I've been doing the CAFTT thing for almost 10 months (just found out I'm extending for an extra month) so I have a pretty decent handle on how things work, the headaches involved, what it's like to train and work with/advise the Iraqis, etc. I have a good friend doing the advising gig in Afghanistan and from what I hear, they're way behind when compared to the Iraqis (that's completely unofficial)--so you'll be doing more 'advanced' training/advising here in Iraq vs in Afghanistan. Also, I'm sure the living conditions, etc are much better (and safer) in Iraq. PM me if you want more details.

For better or for worse, here's how it is (from what I have seen as well as how older 53 guys have explained it to me): Since we don't deploy our Hueys, that by itself can be a career killer. If you never deploy, you'll have little operational experience besides flying around a missle base, doing an IP tour, and then flying around the flag pole again in DC. As far as the Huey Sq's go--most of the missle bases are filled with first assignment guys with only a few older guys filling posistions as CC, DO, ADO, OGV, etc. Getting higher up posistions on the staff, etc are more difficult for straight huey guys because you don't have the operational experience to add to those posistions. Also, the majority of Huey commands are filled by 53/60 guys because as it was explained to me "Why put a straight Huey guy in a command position when he won't go any farther in his career, when you can put a 53/60 guy who needs command experience, and will then go on to work at the joint staff level, etc" A lot of Huey guys are cool with just being a 20 year Major and never deploying. What bothers me the most are the Huey guys who bitch about not getting to do anything different or advance in their careers outside the Huey realm when a lot of these same guys are the ones dodging 365's to fly and train the Iraqis and Afghanis. You don't build much on you past flying experience if all you do is fly around missle bases after missle bases.

The currency in Qatar is the Qatari Rial...the Dinar is used in Iraq. Also, 1 million dinar is only a few bucks lol...it's not that bad, but it is a pretty high exchange rate. I've carried bags and bags of the stuff from Baghdad to our base. The Iraqis still get paid with cash.

Dude, a 365 to Qatar = cake. Try doing a real one in Iraq, or better yet, Afghanistan...I'm sure the guys there are having it the toughest. I just find it interesting that guys talk about deployments to Qatar as if they're hard or something. All I know is that the next time I see a deployment to Asalaya come down, that will be the one I choose!

When I talked to the helo coasties over a year when I was TDY about guys transfering to the CG, they told me that it is designed for guys with prior helo time and experience. Them training you how to fly an advanced helicopter, at night using NVG's, over water, would be the same as retraining me to fly a fighter (I can't wait for the replies on this one)...it could happen, but why take a fighter guy when they can take a bunch of prior Army dudes who have tons of helo time? Not to say it couldn't happen, afterall, MD saw the light and got accepted to transfer to helos in the ANG. I think your best bet would be to try and fly CG Herks.

Like everyone else posting their after thoughts since Beam's reply, I'll add mine. I'll echo that it was good on you Beam to face your critics on our own turf. But here are a couple of more points I'd like you to further address: -If the Air Force cancels ACP for 1-3 years just to 'study' the affects of what it will do to pilot retention....do you have any true operational experience to fully understand what that will do to flying squadrons all around the Air Force if you're wrong (and I personally believe you will be). You can't just say 'oops, I guess that didn't work, we made a mistake...we'll reinstate the bonus'--dude, those guys getting out at their 10 year point are your experienced IP's, ADO's, Evaluators, etc! If the Air Force looses a lot more than expected, you just can't 'get those guys back' or just say 'we'll just train more new pilots the next couple of years to make up for the mistake'. Losing more of your experienced squadron IP's means that your younger pilots, without that extra mentoring, will not develop to be as good of pilots. What will this equate to: Less professional flying force and more importantly...an increase in mishaps (unfortunately we've already seen this occurring). -Something else that's been bugging me...you mention that since the airlines were the biggest factor in beginning ACP and thus should also be the biggest reason in discontinuing the program--did you look at helicopter pilots in the Air Force?? I know that we only comprise less than 10% of Air Force pilots, but, we still get the bonus, and (unless someone can correct me) I don't think the airlines over the last 15 years have been hiring Air Force helicopter pilots by the droves. So then how can you explain the fact that HH-60 CSAR pilots have a huge retention rate problem? Is it perhaps because they have something close to a 4 on 4 off deployment rate?? -Did you look at any of the other services' pilot bonus programs? The Marine Corps offers their largest bonuses for UH-1 pilots, again, I doubt the airlines ever are or ever were trying to hire Marine Huey pilots in droves. In closing, I'll also add that I think the bonus should be increased, not decreased, or even worse, done away with all together. Overall, among the officer corps, we have the highest deployment rates, most expensive initial and upgrade training courses, and the most dangerous jobs in the Air Force. With all due respect Beam, I doubt many other officer AFSCs in the Air Force wear body armor with loaded weapons when doing their jobs overseas (few exceptions being CRO's, Combat Controllers, etc).--I do respect you Beam for your deployment to Aghanistan in helping produce better Afghan officers, but that is by no means anything close to an operational deployment (I can provide further detail on why I made that statement if necessary). If you want the Air Force to get rid of our bonuses, then I suggest doing what the civilian government does for their employees who fly--put them on an entirely different and upgraded pay scale like they do for border patrol pilots.

Biggest understatement of the last 69 years. The Air Force flat out sucks at the assignment process. They offer you phone numbers to your functional....who never answers the phone. They offer you his email address...but he'll rarely email you back. The only way you can usually talk to your functional is through your CC (I know that's the way the AF wants it)...and even then, you rarely find out about those special hidden good deals. All I can say, is that the Air Force, especially among the flying community, is a good ol' boys club (boys meaning guys and girls). If you've got an 'in' with certain people, you get the hook up. If your commander likes you/wants to help you and he's got an 'in', you get a hook up. That's about how it works. The ADP in my opinion is fairly useless.

One of the factors I'm surprised hasn't been brought up yet is the psychological factor of cutting someone's pay... Let me back up one...and I'll add that for sake of the argument let's all assume that every pilot believes in Service before Self and that we can all agree in that there is nothing wrong for wanting to get out at any time when a commitment is up. Even though ACP is considered a 'Bonus' in the sense that you are not necessarily entitled to it, take it away, and pilots will believe that their pay is being cut. Look at it this way...if we were told that from this day forward, no matter what rank you are or will achieve in your career, your pay will never change. That's means that I, would never be able to increase my base pay above O-3 with 6 years regardless of how long I stay in or when I pin on Major, etc--if this were the case, I'm willing to bet that the Air Force would see a large amount of people leave since they are not going to earn what they had originally once planned. This goes along with the ACP Bonus. It's been around for almost 20 years and thus all pilots have come to expect it to be waiting for them when their commitment is up and have thus factored that in to their legitimate future earnings in the Air Force. If you take it away, many pilots (if not most) will take it as a pay cut in their future earnings and thus will be more likely to look elsewhere for other employment whether it's flying commercially or some other civilian job. Couple this with the increased ops tempo, BS with reflective belts and such, blues on Mondays, more additional duties, etc and you're going to see a lot of your more experienced pilots punching. On another note...where is the argument for cancelling the bonus pay for doctors, nurses, etc? I'd like to see the same study (either for or against) for other bonuses.

Hmmm, I have to admit, I haven't heard that one yet...and you could say I know the 36th pretty damn well. I've been deployed for over 6 months now, but I'll write my guys at the unit and ask them if they've heard of anything. You've got to love rumors. On a much more kick ass note...good on ya MD for becoming one of the red headed step children of the Air Force! I should try and find that picture of that dragonfly (or whatever insect) that's hovering while mating...basically combining the two greatest things ever--hovering and sex.

Yes, you need to be (or have been) a qualified IP in one airframe or another. The 172's and 208's are at Kirkuk, not Taji. Here we have the Hueys and Mi-17's. These 365's count as a remote tour (kind of). You get short tour credit but you don't PCS, which means you still get your BAH since you are technically 'TDY'. You make a a lot more $$$ on 365's than you do on remote tours to Korea (or so I've been told).

I guess you've never flown a helicopter

This would work...if the pilot understood you more than half the time. Some (not many) of the Iraqi pilots speak pretty decent English...and some, well, they only understand the very basics, ie turn left to heading 270 (and even that can be tough sometimes with the horrible comm system we have in the Mi-17). Flying and instructing here has definitely proven to be a quite a challenge. It's not like teaching studs back home.

Not too clear on where you're going with this... Are you implying something about the Afghani pilots are the Coalition FE? Just curious, that's all.

My roommate was a maintenance officer/advisor with the 172's and now with the Mi-17's. He's rotating out soon but if you PM your email address and questions, I can have him contact you.

Oh man. The stories I could tell about this issue. I'm doing the exact same mission except with CAFTT in Iraq and my good buddy is doing the CAPTF mission in Afghanistan. It's pretty challenging to say the least. I'll go into more details if anyone has any further questions. All I can say is YJCMTSU.